Box Office: Immortals takes the weekend

November 17, 2011 - By Alex

Immortals came out on top after fighting off fellow newcomer Jack and Jill, an Adam Sandler comedy, and Puss in Boots, the former leader. Very much a surprising victory in what ended up as a better than expected weekend.

I have to be honest here, I was not expecting Immortals to gross $32.2 million over the weekend. Now granted, that’s only a fraction of the 2D only $70.9 million made by 300 in 2006, but considering most people were predicting no more than $20 million, I’d say Immortals more than delivered at the box office. For Relativity this is now their highest opening weekend yet. Also since Immortals was made with a production budget of $75 million, it might actually turn a small profit when all will be said and done since I’m not expecting less than $90 million in North America and just as much around the world.

Jack and Jill was 2nd with $25 million and among Adam Sandler comedies, only Funny People (not that much of a comedy actually) opened worse in the past 11 years. Way to go and yet that is still a great opening considering just how awful Jack and Jill seems to be. The sad part is this movie will probably make enough money to bring the studio a profit and Adam Sandler will keep making dribble when we all know he can do a lot better. Jack and Jill should finish somewhere around $80 million or so in North America.

3rd place belongs to Puss in Boots with a very impressive $24.7 million in its third weekend. Thanks to box office legs unlike anything I’ve seen for an animated film since How to Train Your Dragon, Puss in Boots stands at $109.9 million after just 19 days. It will be interesting to see how the release of Happy Feet Two this upcoming weekend will change things.

Tower Heist was 4th, softer than expected at $12.7 million. After 12 days the Brett Ratner movie has made $45 million. In order to make a profit it will need a strong international box office run since North America definitely won’t cut it.

Finally in 5th place J. Edgar, the Clint Eastwood and Leonardo DiCaprio biopic about the life of John Edgar Hoover, grossed $11.2 million. While on paper this seems like a good idea for a movie, in practice biopics are almost never that popular. There’s the odd exception out there, one actually featured Leonardo DiCaprio. I’m obviously talking about The Aviator, Martin Scorsese’s Howard Hughes biopic. That was a hit, this one won’t be.

So what did we learn today? Tarsem can make a hit (Immortals), Adam Sandler can still sell tickets on his name alone, cats bring the big bucks, Brett Ratner is running on fumes and Leonardo DiCaprio makes much more successful biopics when paired with Martin Scorsese.